7 Quick Takes Vol. 44

1.     This was a pretty rough week for me. Amplifying my usual ‘moods’ was the fact that our beloved family dog, Smuckers, took a turn for the worse over the weekend and finally departed this life on Tuesday evening at the age of 14. The knowledge of what was coming, and the shadow of that loss has pretty much hung over me all week, making every individual frustration and depression that much worse. I’m feeling a bit better now, now that it’s over, but still sad.

2.     To take my mind off my depression, I’ve been writing like a fool. Unfortunately, I only just realized that I’m a little behind schedule: the halfway point of the 15^th is tomorrow, and I’m just shy of 19,000 words, while I should be topping 25,000 by tomorrow night. I’ll have to put in some extra effort to make up the deficit. In any case, I’m enjoying the effort of writing this story very much and am pretty pleased at how it’s coming along so far.

3.     I had a good deal of amusement this week over what might just be the single stupidest example of the “secret history of Jesus and Mary Magdalene” trope I’ve ever seen (by the way, why is it always her? It’s not like there aren’t any other female disciples to choose from). Supposedly, researchers in the British Museum discovered an ancient document that tells how Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had two children, thus (how do they always put it?) “raising intriguing questions about the all-male priesthood” and “adding to our knowledge of a more authentic form of Christianity.”

                  So, what is this document? Well, it’s written in code, you see. Jesus is called ‘Joseph,’ and Mary is called ‘Asenath.’ Yes, just like the Old Testament figures, Joseph son of Jacob and his briefly-mentioned wife, Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. Yes, on the surface it seems like it’s just a pious retelling of the story in Genesis, describing how Asenath converted to belief in the one true God, thus making her a fitting spouse for one of the great patriarchs of the Bible, and yes, that’s how everyone who has ever read it in the past century and a half that it has been published and available to the public has understood it, but obviously it’s really a secret history about Jesus and Mary encoded to shield the authors from the wrath of the all-powerful Church of the first and second centuries, and we know that because…

Because shut up, that’s why!

4.     Whenever one of those “the Hidden Truth of Christianity” things pop up, I’m reminded of this issue of Hark! A Vagrant (which is very funny and often very clever, for those interested):

5.     So, I saw Big Hero Six last weekend and liked it a good deal. I’d rank it below both Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled, but it was much better than Frozen. I think I’m going to have to go see it again, because it wasn’t quite what I was expecting and I have the feeling I’ll enjoy it even more on a second viewing (rather like my reaction to Brave). Flaw-wise, my main problem was that the four friends were underdeveloped and didn’t really have much to do in the story; I think the film could have stood to be maybe ten or fifteen minutes longer just to flesh them out a bit. I felt rather like I was watching one episode of an ensemble TV show (i.e. Teen Titans), where one select individual or pair out of the group is the focus of this story, because you know they’ll have time to develop the others in subsequent episodes. I really hope there’s a sequel that delves more into the supporting cast. On the other hand, they do a good job of sketching the characters in shorthand and the six heroes really do come off as close and loyal friends who have each other’s backs and are intimately familiar with each other’s quirks. Most importantly, the central relationship between Hiro and the robot Baymax was well-developed, touching, and really made the film. Plus, Baymax is probably the funniest and most endearing sidekick in recent memory. The story is tight and flows well, and the theme is clear, honest, and well-realized, giving the movie a solid moral core. It’s funny, sweet, has an immensely likeable cast of heroes, and is just a whole lot of fun. My rating: 4/5. 

6.     You know, I complain about my job fairly often (probably more often than I should), but I do want to make it clear that the job isn’t really the problem. In fact, this is probably the best job of its type that I could hope for: people are decent to work with, boss is decent, I mostly get left alone and no micromanaged, times flexible, etc. The problem is that I am not a good person to do this job. I have a natural resentment to being forced to take an interest in things I don’t care about, and I can’t think of anything this company does that interests me in the slightest, let alone the things I’m obliged to handle. Add to that…well, put it this way; have you ever had one of those old, crappy computers where sometimes when you click on something the computer just sits there, and you’re not sure whether it’s processing the command, didn’t register the command, or has frozen solid and will need to be restarted? A large chunk of my job basically feels like that.

7.     And our traditional end quote:

(on a ‘sawing the woman in half’ trick)

Alfred Hitchcock: “All I can say is that the saw worked perfectly, but the wand didn’t.”

-Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Ronald Reagan's Veteran's Day Prayer

The Great Communicator says it all here

"Tommy" by Rudyard Kipling

(I found a truly repulsive bit of writing recently sneering at the notion that soldiers and police should be considered heroes. This poem by Mr. Kipling immediately sprang to mind:)

I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,

The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”

The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,

I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:

 O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;

 But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,

 The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,

 O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,

They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;

They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,

But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!

 For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;

 But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,

 The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,

 O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep

Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;

An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit

Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.

 Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”

 But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,

 The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,

 O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,

But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;

An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,

Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;

 While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,

 But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,

 There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,

 O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:

We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.

Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face

The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.

 For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”

 But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;

 An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;

 An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

7 Quick Takes vol. 43

Still hosted by Conversion Diary

1.       Well, that was an enjoyable election season. I suppose it’s too much to hope that, with the largest Republican majority since the days of Herbert Hoover, we’ll soon be experiencing a return to 1920s level prosperity. As a matter of fact, given my experience with the GOP, I suspect they’ll whizz this victory away just like they’ve always done in the past. Still, 2014: the Bloodletting was at least a fun experience of schadenfreude.

2.       I’m doing Nanowrimo this year, and using it as a chance to finally tackle the next entry in the Gods and Monsters universe, which I’ve been considering off and on since at least May. So far so good; the story’s flowing and cohering better than it ever has before, and I’m having fun doing some very intricate plotting. It’s also unexpectedly kind of sad, since I know what’s going to happen to all these characters down the road and they’re all so blissfully unaware of their impending fates. Not that all of them have unhappy endings, necessarily, but they’ve all got trouble with a capital T coming their way, and we meet them in one of their last moments of relative peace. 

3.       So far my Halloween video has been getting mostly good feedback, though a friend of mine pointed out a rather embarrassing flaw: on YouTube I titled it “Batman Rouges Gallery:” thus misleading some poor soul into thinking it was a tribute to Bruce Wayne’s extensive selection of cosmetics for bringing out just that right shade of blush in his soft, dimpled cheeks. Needless to say, this has been corrected and no, this is not the first time I’ve made that error.

I understand Bane once did something similar. He received a charming makeover before realizing his mistake.

“That Autumn Rose color betrays you because it belongs to me!”

4.       I’m back to being engrossed in reading Witness by Whittaker Chambers, which I’ve been reading on-and-off for about a year now (it’s a big book, and sometimes kind of hard to follow: lots of little details about life in the Communist underground and the various people who aren’t using real names). Now I’ve gotten to the part where he talks about the actual Alger Hiss case. One of the really interesting things, for me, was the prominent role played by then-Congressman Richard Nixon, who proves one of Chambers’ staunchest allies/weapons in the case. Nixon today, of course, is basically the political boogeyman of the US government (him and Joseph McCarthy, which frankly says a lot more about America than of either of those two men), but at the time Chambers was writing, his Presidential years and fall from grace were still far in the future. It’s startling really to see him here, recalled with such evident respect and gratitude. When I have time, I think I’d like to study Nixon a little more closely; the image I’m beginning to form of him is not quite the ‘Corrupt and power-mad tyrant defeated by the heroic efforts of the fourth estate’ which is all I’ve ever been shown.

5.       Apparently (I wasn’t following it very closely) there was ‘shock and amazement’ recently when Pope Francis announced that Evolution and the Big Bang were both compatible with Christian faith. My reaction: can we please stop pretending to be surprised whenever a Pope says this? I mean, if I’m not mistaken, every Pope since at least Pius XII has said something about how there’s no conflict between Christianity and Evolution. Every serious Catholic writer and thinker I’ve ever read, if he brings it up, tends to kind of shrug at the idea and say something to the effect of “If that’s what science says, fine, but it doesn’t have any effect on doctrine.” Hell, Saint Thomas Aquinas was allowing for evolution back in the twelve-hundreds (“Species, also, that are new, if any such appear, existed beforehand in various active powers; so that animals, and perhaps even new species of animals, are produced by putrefaction by the power which the stars and elements received at the beginning”).

Basically, whenever I hear anything about the ‘war between science and religion,’ or the like, my reaction is pretty much the same one your average atheist has to Christianity: “Good God; do people still believe that crap!?”

6.       Today after work I have plans to go straight to the theater to see Big Hero Six, which I’ve been really looking forward to, even before I had my own resurgence in Disney Animation. I doubt I’ll have the time or energy for a full review, but I will at least let you know what I thought (early word is quite encouraging, though that’s what I said about Frozen, so we’ll see).

7.       And our ending quote:

“This will go down in history as the cinema season the proved that crime doesn’t pay, but there’s a fortune in adultery, incest, and homosexuality.”

-Bob Hope, 1970 Academy Awards

Forever Autumn

A song from Jeff Wayne's marvelous The War of the Worlds album, which nicely suits my general mood these days (the song; not the novel excerpts). 

7 Quick Takes Vol. 42

Still hosted by Conversion Diary.

1.       Happy Halloween! You know, lately I’ve been seeing a bunch of different posts in the Catholic blogsphere about how Catholics should embrace Halloween. I guess I’m not really the target audience, because I already love Halloween. The macabre, the spooky, and the grotesque are all part of the Christian tradition and a day that celebrates those things seems perfectly reasonable in my book (then again, I’m the guy who thinks A Nightmare On Elm Street is an allegory about the destructive nature of sin, so what do I know?).

2.       To celebrate the holiday, I put together a music video I’d had in mind for a while: Marilyn Manson’s cover of This Is Halloween set to footage from the Arkham games. Batman is supposed to be a fairly scary hero, and his villains even more so, so it seemed a good fit. Making music videos is a hobby of mine, just one that sometimes is hard to indulge because I’m obsessively detailed about that sort of thing and need to find the exact right song with all the necessary footage before I make it. This one was a lot of fun, though time consuming, since there was so much footage to go through. Enjoy!

3.       I used to celebrate the run-up to Halloween with a series of horror movie reviews, but lately I just haven’t found the time or energy to write reviews. Oddly enough, my recent film diet has largely consisted of Disney movies, most of which I hadn’t seen since childhood. I’m finding them a nice tonic to my moods, as nothing uplifts quite like a good fairy tale.

4.       Speaking of fairy tales, I’ve also purchased Charles Perrault’s classic collection and read through it in a flash. He’s retellings tend to be gentler than those of the Brothers Grimm (though still with plenty of death and murder to go around), and often with a surprisingly wry sense of humor. For instance, in his version of Sleeping Beauty, when the princess awakes she and the prince sit there and chat for four hours before the housekeeper comes in to remind the princess that the whole castle has been asleep for a hundred years, are near faint with hunger, and so could they please come down to dinner now!?

 Oh, and I love how in his version of Cinderella the title character cheerfully forgives her wicked stepsisters after marrying the prince, invites them to live in the palace, and finds them noble husbands, instead of the old version where they get their eyes plucked out by birds. In fact, this version of Cinderella is all around a pleasant character, responding to her unfortunate lot in life with humble good cheer and answering the rudeness of her stepfamily with kindness. Some call it passivity, I call it goodness (and Monsieur Perrault agrees with me).  

5.       On that note, rewatching Sleeping Beauty and so forth has made me realize that I’ve been approaching Order of the Rattlesnake all wrong. I’d been thinking of it as an urban fantasy in the mold of, oh, say, Harry Potter. Instead, I realized, it’s a modern-dress fairy tale. So, I’m going to be taking a step back for a while to do the ‘nanowrimo,’ and in the meantime rebuild the story in a proper fashion (I suspect I’ll be able to keep most of what I’ve written, only tweaked here and there, so that’s good news).  

6.       Last night was Rifftrax Live: Anaconda. Rifftrax, for those who don’t know, is basically an updated version of Mystery Science Theater 3000, featuring the three leads and head writers of the show – Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett – ‘riffing’ on various films. They offer both downloadable Mp3 commentaries to synch up with big-budget modern blockbusters and pre-synched versions of more obscure features and shorts. Now, Anaconda is one of my formative movies: I love the damn stupid thing, so I was of course eager to see them ply their talents here. They were in top form, with lots of great riffs on the general stupidity of the film and, especially, Jon Voight’s famously over-the-top performance (“If you can’t trust an insane poacher who casually confesses to killing many people, who can you trust?”). All in all, a good time.

7.       Let’s finish up with a suitable Halloween quote (and it’s disturbing how often this perfectly applies to my own life. Except for the ‘girlfriend’ part):

Ash (looking at himself in a mirror): “I’m fine…I’m fine…”

Mirror Ash (jumps out and grabs him): “I don’t think so. We just cut up our girlfriend’s head with a chainsaw. Does that sound ‘fine’?”

-Evil Dead 2

Vivat Christus Rex!

7 Quick Takes vol. 41

Still hosted by the inestimable Conversion Diary.

1.     These past two weeks have been an up-and-down series of getting sick, getting depressed, and then apparently coming out of both only to plunge back in. The worst part is that my sickness has never been extreme enough to warrant taking off work (though I have considered it once or twice). 

2.     Speaking of work, my work computer died suddenly this week. Yes, the one I have complained about before. Surprisingly enough, it had been doing much better, with only a little sluggishness, right before it permanently kicked the bucket: sort of like how head-injury victims often feel perfectly fine and even get up and walk around right before dying.  I’m now working off a borrowed computer while they sort out what to do about replacing mine.

3.     In a fit of boredom, I started listening to my audio book version of Monster Hunter Alpha by the inimitable Larry Correia last weekend. Really, those books are horribly addictive: Alpha is a seventeen-hour audio book and I not only already finished it, I’m now about three-quarters of the way through the next one, Monster Hunter Legion (both of which, I might add, I’ve already listened to at least once). I like his Grimnoir Chronicles better (they’re in the rarified ‘books I have to resist the urge to re-read as soon as I finish them’ category), but the Monster Hunter books are a truckload of fun. The trouble is that whenever I read something while I’m writing, I start to panic when my stuff isn’t as good as the stuff I’m reading/listening to.

4.     Speaking of writing, Order of the Rattlesnake is proceeding torturously along. I’m now having to tackle some rather complicated and difficult action scenes, of which I only have a vague idea of how they’re supposed to play out, so it’s slow-going. At least I have one major action scene in a semi-presentable state, so that’s good news!

5.     I’ve been considering doing an overhaul/reboot of my blog. I’m finding the ‘Catholic Nerd’ image doesn’t fit my inclinations as well as it has in the past (though I am still proudly nerdy and Catholic), and I’d like to do something more personal. We’ll see. I don’t know.

6.     I’m also considering seeking a graduate degree that would allow me to teach at the college level. The problem there is that I currently have almost zero respect for most institutions of higher learning and doubt I’d have the patience to endure a constant stream of the kind of nonsense that spews from them. I’m planning to use my free time this weekend to work out some kind of life plan and settle on what to do about all that.

7.     And let’s end with another quote:

“We made a great mistake in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and all our best generals to edit the newspapers.”

-Robert E. Lee

Vivat Christus Rex!